I HAVE to share an experience that has been surprising to me but that I hope will help others. Please share with those you know who have ongoing acne on their chin.

For YEARS -- perhaps, geez. 15? -- I have suffered from chin acne (BTW, I'm 51, female). Whatever it is -- vulgaris, adult, hormonal, nodule, cystic, whatever -- it has been so frustrating and ongoing that I have tried everything under the sun to manage it. If I couldn't get rid of it, I would be content with just covering it up with makeup, or to keep it less "angry" (you know what I mean: inflamed, oozing and painful) so it would be less noticeable.

Also, for about a month before the holidays, I had something else going on with my chin, and after a lot of research determined it was perioral dermatitis (small bumps, hard-to-heal spots, lots of flaking, minor but specific pain, redness, etc.). Oh, great, I thought; something else on TOP of the acne! But I've had dermatitis before, and knew that an anti-fungal treatment could help.

Now, I happened to have ordered a couple of months ago (from an Indian pharmaceutical website because it's too expensive to buy here in the U.S.) some Lamisil cream for my husband's toenails. (Gross, I know.) (Also, this is NOT the oral type; I'm afraid of what that can do to your liver. Lamisil is, apparently, very strong stuff.) So, just because I was trying anything and everything, I put some Lamisil on my chin for the perioral dermatitis. The results were AMAZING. Unbelievable! In three days' time, the dermatitis was pretty much GONE. My chin was smooth, and even the redness was diminished (though I think that scarring will take more time for all the normal reasons). Honestly, I saw it as a Christmas present to myself.

To be really thorough in my treatment (like, when you take antibiotics for awhile even after the symptoms have disappeared), I continued to use the Lamisil on my chin for the next several nights (about four). Not only did this eliminate my dermatitis (it is now GONE), but my ACNE spots have been incredibly less "angry" and are healing faster than they've ever healed before. I've never had my acne be so short-lived and so calm.

I'm going to keep using the Lamisil cream for the next several nights and see what happens. But it makes me wonder if, to some degree, acne CAN, in fact, be fungus-related. There are 100 types of arthritis; perhaps there are many, many types of acne. (?) I also tend to get angular cheilitis, and it is fungus-related. So, heck -- perhaps for the last 15 years I've been dealing with something that simply hasn't been healing because it was treated only partially. It's pretty disgusting to me to think I've had a fungal infection on my chin, but if this Lamisil can clear it up, I'll FLY to India if I have to in order to keep it in stock.

So, for those of you who, like me, are at your wit's end with recurring acne on your chin, you might give this a try. I don't work for Lamisil AT ALL (I wouldn't work for a pharmaceutical company if my life depended on it). The is the prescription-strength cream and you can buy it cheaply from an overseas pharmacy (same manufacturer, BTW, which is why I hate pharmaceutical companies). The other names for it are "Sebifin" (a brand name) and the generic is terbinafine HCI 1%.

Finally, I would never encourage you to take an oral pharmaceutical without a doctor's recommendation, but since this can go on your toenails (and other unmentionable places), I'd think it's safe to make the recommendation.

Good luck; I'd love to hear if anyone had the same luck I've had with this!